And on we go...radiation #3!

We are at the start of the next chapter in our journey. Sometimes I wonder if we will ever catch a break! It has been a most busy year so far.

With the metastases now in the bone, treatment is radiation to the femur.  Callum will have 5 treatments and started today.  It is high dose radiation but is supposed to be quite effective.  He will have a bit more pain for a couple of days, and then it is supposed to get better fairly quickly after that. We are really looking forward to that! In the meantime....thanks for morphine derivatives!

As the last few weeks have gone past, his mobility has slowly decreased and last week he was told to not weight bear, as he is at risk of breaking his leg where the tumour is. He is feeling quite well, other than the pain, so we hope that in the next week or so things are back to being pretty good for him.

It has meant a busy time for  me, and a frustrating time for him.  We have had offers to come and help, but it is such a short time we know we can handle it. I have nearly all the groceries stocked up and garbage and recycling days are finished for the week! I think I have nearly caught up on emails, and even finished an old "to-do" thing from nearly 10 years ago!

July was very busy for us. We were thrilled to have Callum's cousin and family in Saskatoon while they competed in the ScotDance Canada national highland dance championships. The girls did quite well, and we introduced them to the Berry Barn, deep fried turkey and perogies! Callum's parents and brothers came up to visit and we had a great time. I spied a tear or two on the morning they left...we can hardly wait for then to return in 2 years! Edmonton -look out! In the middle of the visit we made a quick trip to Medicine Hat for Cade's 1st birthday. What an exciting day, and certainly leads to much reflection. There was a time that we were not sure Callum would live to see his first grandchild, and here he was celebrating Cade's first birthday! It is such a joy to see Callum with Cade - I didn't know there could be so much love and joy in one room!  After the visit of the Fraser clan, we headed back to the Hat and then to Calgary to help out with Cade while Vanessa finished her final courses in preparation for her big 3 day exam for accounting.  We are so proud of her diligence and perseverance - it would have been easy to put all on hold for a year or two, but she will soon be done and we will have a Chartered Accountant in the family!  Another goal for Callum to see it all happen!

We are now home and finished vacation. I am back to work and going to the appointments at the cancer centre. It has been a very frustrating month trying to get up to date information with so many people on holidays. Much of the information won't matter to the treatment plan, but it does matter to us. And electronic health records! I think I will join - perhaps lead - the crusade for electronic health records! Without them, his chart physically travels all over the Cancer Centre...from Dr. to chemo to radiation oncologist to radiation treatment to records for typing to release of information and back and forth and round about! What a crazy system!

So...I hope to track down some test results this week. We meet with the neurosurgeon on Aug 5 to discuss MRI results.....we have no idea what will be the outcome of this meeting.

Right now our main focus is the radiation treatments and looking forward to some pain free days for Callum.  The rest we will take when it comes.

"The future is literally in our hands to mold as we like. But we cannot wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow is now."  Eleanor Roosevelt



TTFN
Lorna

Test

I am testing to see if I can upload a blog entry from my blackberry.

Lorna
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Marching forward

Well, the marathon at the hospital this morning went quite well. Amazing what you can get done in the time it takes to pay $13.50 in parking fees!

I felt fairly comfortable when went to see the doctor - we were taken into a regular clinic room. If we had gone into the "pretty" room I would have been more worried. And we found out what we already were sure we knew. Doctor Haider confirmed that the biopsy was positive for metastatic colorectal cancer, and that the cancer is progressing. He didn't seem to think that it is a result of the missed chemo in April or not taking oxaliplatin. He figures it has been there for a while – which is what we now think. We spent a lot of time thinking it was ligaments and cartilage as the pain was the same as a prior injury Callum had years ago. It all made sense to us! It likely comes as no surprise to any of you to hear that it is not really common for colorectal cancer to spread to the bone, and if it does, it usually appears in the back area, near the site of the original tumour. While it is not unheard of to have it in a distant site (ie. Limb), it is unusual. Callum continues his path of being unusual!

Callum will have his main chemo drug changed to Irinotecan (along with the 5FU and Leucovorin). The Irinotecan is the chemo drug he started with in May 2008, but with an all too early CT scan way back then, it was feared that he was resistant to it, so was switched to the Oxaliplatin. Doctor Haider is confident that this drug will help slow the progression of the cancer, and we hope it stabilizes it again. He starts this regimen June 29. We are waiting for the radiation appointment for treatment to the bone. It sounds like he will have something like 2 – 5 treatments, but we aren’t sure yet.

The tissue from the biopsy was checked for the KRAS mutation (one of those medical things) to see if he would be eligible for treatment with Vectibix, a biological agent that has been recently approved for funding in Saskatchewan and has shown to be helpful for people with advanced colorectal cancer. Unfortunately, he has the KRAS mutation, which means that particular treatment won’t work for him. On with the research!!

It was so nice to hear Doctor Haider say that even though at some point our hands are tied, as long as we have options he is prepared to fight this thing. What a great thing to hear and know he is supports our fight!

So, we continue to carry on for now and wait to see the results of the brain MRI and chest/abdomen/pelvis CT that were done today. Hopefully in a week or so we should have some results.

Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another. Walter Elliott

TTFN

Lorna

Bump, Bump...

Well, we heard from the docs last week - biopsy was positive for metastases in the femur. We were crossing our fingers it would be different, all the while knowing what it really was. It was still a bit of a blow, anyway. We see the doctor Monday, June 28 to get the new plan, which will likely at the very least, include radiation. We will find out then what the rest of the plan will be!

We had a great week last week. We were in Brandon for C. 's grad, and then had a grand adventure getting to Medicine Hat for Vanessa's birthday!. Quite a few miles put on the Porsche in 8 days! We did lots of visiting with friends in both Brandon and the Hat, and had some wonderful family time. We were lucky with some nice weather and were able to go to Echo Dale Park with Stu, Vanessa and Cade. We were very obviously grandparents as they looked at us sitting under the tree, one with the video camera and the other with the still camera! I just miss Cade and the kids so much when we aren't there, I have to take a million pictures!

We finished off the day with a fire in Vanessa's back yard. It was a wonderful day! We were able to have lunch with some great friends, coffee with our nephew C and family, and have supper with my brother and nephew! It was another great day!

I will update the blog once we have more information!

There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something better tomorrow. Orison Marden

TTFN

Biopsy...done....

Things went well today. Dr. Hussain is the most excellent doctor! We are so thankful he was willing to do the biospy so quickly. It wasn't near as bad as I thought it would be, but it was quite interesting. The procedure was done in the clinic office and took about 20 minutes total. The area where the drill went in was frozen, but they can't freeze the bone, so there was a bit of pain when the Dr was taking the bone pieces. The drill (not a motorized one, all of it was done by hand), looks like the notched on in this picture.

Callum did quite well, but was pretty doped up for a while. After the biopsy he headed across the hall and had a blood transfusion of 2 units since his hemoglobin has been a bit low again.

He has spent quite a bit of the day sleeping and resting, and is starting to feel a bit more pain now that the freezing is gone and the heavy dose of pain meds has worked out of his system.

I am sure tomorrow will be better, even if he still has some pain.

We should have the results some time next week.

TTFN

Lorna

Bumpity, bump, bump, bump...

It has been an interesting week or so. We recently found out that the pain in Callum's knee has nothing to do with cartilage or ligaments, and they are suspecting it is cancer. He will have a biopsy tomorrow morning (June 15) and hopefully we know something within a week or so. He is feeling fine, except for the blasted pain in his knee. It is really quite disappointing for him to feel so well but not have full mobility.

It is just another bump along the way - that is our perspective, anyway! We really won't find out any treatment plan until we have the biopsy results. The orthopedic surgeon we saw is an awesome doctor! Very respectful, thorough, and patiently explains things so we are able to understand.

We have a busy month coming up with birthdays, visitors and graduations. We are looking forward to seeing so many people and having a wonderful time visiting.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't worried. This is another scary bump. One we knew would happen, but it doesn't make it less scary. I don't thing anyone can not feel scared when they find out there is cancer active in their body, or the body of someone you love. But don't count my stubborn husband down and out - he has already surprised the hell out of a lot of us, and he can do it again!

I will keep the blog more updated as things happen and we have news.

In the meantime....here's a picture of a proud Grandad!

FACE YOUR FEARS

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face... The danger lies in refusing to face the fear, in not daring to come to grips with it... You must make yourself succeed every time. You must do the thing you think you cannot do. Eleanor Roosevelt

TTFN

2 years later

Picture: Callum and my brother at the AC/DC concert in Las Vegas, April 9/10.

Here it is over a month since the last post - not a few days as promised! I think I really just could not write much more about Callum's hospital stay. The "Reader's Digest" version is that he made it through a real rough time. We were really fortunate to have so much family around - everyone travelled for hours just to come and be with him. He had a few ups and downs after that, but with some major antibiotics he recovered. And both of us learned we could trust me to give him an IV antibiotic and flush an IV line!

- The IV pump and antibiotic tube.

Lately I have been thinking more of the past 2 years and all that has happened. It was 2 years ago on April 10 that we first learned the cancer had spread to both lungs and there was to be no cure. I remember some very tense filled days as we tried to fight hard to see an oncologist and get the treatment he needed as soon as soon as possible. April 14 was the 2 year anniversary of the lung biopsy. Another long, stress filled day - well, week, I suppose. April 15 was the 2 year anniversary of my job at SSEA. And coming up April 27 it will be 2 years since Callum was given the 18 - 24 months prognosis for life expectancy (which was later reduced to 6 - 12 months in Sept/08). Well, he showed them! Recently there has been some growth in the area where his one remaining brain tumour is. It is most likely still some swelling from the gamma knife procedure he had in Dec. But as a precaution, we went to see his fabulous neurosurgeon, Dr. D. Fourney. He said that Callum has done remarkable with the metastatic disease. He recently was told by an oncologist that if he were to say how things were going just by his clinical exam, he would say he is great. I am sure they are wondering why his physical appearance just doesn't match his file!

So, over the last 2 years, these are some things that have happened:

- lung biopsy

- chemo

- brain metastases

- blood clot

- gamma knife surgery

- whole brain radiation

- change in chemo drugs

- more gamma knife surgery

- sepsis infection

- 11 day hospital stay

And:

- trip to Ixtapa

- trip to Scotland

- day trip to Carnousite and St. Andrew's golf courses

- bought Porsche

- 30th wedding anniversary

- trip to Ireland

- birth of the sunshine of our life - Cade

- trip to Vancouver Island for a 60th birthday party

- another trip to Ixtapa

- trip to Las Vegas

- celebrated parents' 50th wedding anniversary

- many, many, many wonderful moments spent with family and friends

We certainly have made the most of the last 2 years. And we continue to set goals and make plans. We are planning to see George Thorogood in Saskatoon in May, and go to Toronto to see U2 in July. We are most thrilled to be invited to our nephew C's graduation in June. Callum is really looking forward to his golf match: our son Jamie and nephew Chris versus Callum and Chris's father-in-law. Those young guys are in for a wild time!

And of course, we always enjoy our time with Cade (and his parents!). He is growing up so fast and is just a wonderful boy.

We never know how things will turn out. We are very lucky to have had this wonderful time with Callum. He continues to do well and he is an amazing inspiration to many. He is my hero.

“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”
– Hellen Keller

TTFN

Lorna